This was the best bread I ever had. It was brushed with fresh olive oil and fresh rosemary. Soft and pliable, reminiscent of the East Indian bread, "Nan" but with a flakier crust. So fresh, still perfectly fresh the next day.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3500975.ece
Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come? *************************************************************************
Carl Mortished, World Business Editor The spectre of food shortages is casting a shadow across the globe, causing riots in Africa, consumer protests in Europe and panic in food-importing countries. In a world of increasing affluence, the hoarding of rice and wheat has begun. The President of the Philippines made an unprecedented call last week to the Vietnamese Prime Minister, requesting that he promise to supply a quantity of rice.
The personal appeal by Gloria Arroyo to Nguyen Tan Dung for a guarantee was a highly unusual intervention and highlighted the Philippines’ dependence on food imports, rice in particular.
“This is a wake-up call,” said Robert Zeigler, who heads the International Rice Research Institute. “We have a crisis brewing in rice supply.” Half of the planet depends on rice but stocks are at their lowest since the mid1970s when Bangladesh suffered a terrible famine. Rice production will fall this year below the global consumption level of 430 million tonnes.
Street protests and rioting in West Africa towards the end of last year were a harbinger of bigger problems, the World Food Programme said. The global information and early warning system of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has monitored outbreaks of rioting in Mexico, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal. There have also been protests in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, over government price increases.Population pressure and increased wealth are mainly to blame for the resurgence of food insecurity. More people are eating meat and dairy products in Asia, which increases the demand on the animal-feed industry. Milk powder prices rose from $2,000 to $4,800 per tonne last year as rising consumption of milk products in Asia coincided with shortages in the Western world. Drought in Australia has worsened the problem as have government policies in Europe and America to increase the use of biofuels.
Mounting concern about rice has prompted the Indian Government to restrict exports of certain varieties. The measure triggered a surge in global rice prices, which have risen 50 per cent in a year, according to the FAO. The rice shortage is even felt in Britain where the price of basmati, the biggest-selling variety, is rising rapidly.
Wheat is suffering even greater pressures, with prices up 115 per cent in a year. A succession of droughts in Australia has put upward pressure on the cost of a food commodity that is already in short supply. Stocks are at a 40-year low and exports are being restricted from Beijing to Buenos Aires. Ukraine started closing its door to grain exports in June and Russia set a 40 per cent export tariff on wheat in January.
Argentina has delayed the reopening of its wheat export registry until April to protect domestic supplies, and China, a net exporter of corn, rice and wheat last year, has imposed export quotas on grain in order to stem runaway food price inflation. A surge in its inflation index in December was blamed entirely on rising food prices, notably pork, which rose 48 per cent.
Farmers worldwide are worried about feed costs. In Europe pig and poultry breeders are threatening to cut production unless they are paid higher prices.
..
******************************************* The World's Growing Food-Price Crisis *******************************************
Time Magazine By Vivienne Walt/Paris Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008
Add another item to the list of threats to world peace: Food.
Soaring prices of staples — which have risen about 75% since 2005, driven by growing demand, rising oil prices and the effects of global warming — have sparked riots in several countries, as people reel from sticker shock and governments scramble to feed their people. Crowds tore through three cities in the West African nation of Burkina Faso late last week, burning government buildings and looting stores; when officials tried to talk peace with one group of protesters, the enraged crowd hurled stones at them. The riots followed similar violent protests over food prices in Senegal and Mauritania earlier this year. And, last October, protesters in India burned hundreds of food-ration stores after stockpiles emptied, leaving thousands of people unfed.
Governments might succeed in quashing the protests, but lowering food prices could be far tougher and will likely take years, according to analysts who track global food consumption. The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, or IFPRI, said last December that high prices are unlikely to fall soon, partly because world food stocks are being squeezed by soaring demand. The wild ride in agricultural markets has attracted intense speculation among investors, with billions of dollars being poured into commodities markets. On Monday, the price of wheat shot up about 25% on the Chicago Board of Trade, after officials in Khazakstan announced plans to restrict exports of their giant wheat crop in order to ensure the food supply to their own citizens. Russian officials have also said they are planning to restrict grain exports.
For the world's poorest people, the price rises are already proving devastating, since the speed at which prices have risen has wrought havoc on government relief programs. Earlier this month, a top official at the U.S. Agency for International Development admitted that in order to meet current targets, it had been forced to skim off funds from future food-aid programs, worth about $120 million.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that millions more people who were previously earning enough to feed their families can now no longer afford the food in their local stores, and are now swelling the ranks of those expecting relief from aid organizations. "We are seeing a new face of hunger," the executive director of U.N.'s World Food Program, Josette Sheeran, told TIME on Tuesday. "People who were not in the urgent category are now moving into that category." The organization currently feeds about 73 million people, including millions who get by on just 50 cents a day. After hosting a series of emergency meetings with international organizations and food experts this month at WFP's Rome headquarters, Sheeran said the organization has concluded that food prices will remain high for years. She announced on Monday that the organization might have to cut its relief programs unless it raises an extra $500 million this year. "There is no way we can absorb a 25% price rise in one day and the volatility of the markets," Sheeran said.
One factor driving up the cost of food is the rocketing price of oil, which raises agricultural costs of everything from fertilizer to transport and shipping. Like the oil price, the cost of food is responding, in part, to the burgeoning demand in China and India, where rising incomes allow people to eat bigger meals, and to buy meat far more frequently. That, in turn, has helped to squeeze the world's supply of grain, since it takes about six pounds of animal feed to produce a pound of meat.
Then there is climate change: Harvests have been seriously disrupted by freak weather, including prolonged droughts in Australia and southern Africa, floods in West Africa, and deep frost in China and Europe. And the push to produce biofuels to replace hydrocarbons is also adding to the pressure on food supplies — generous U.S. subsidies for ethanol has gobbled up needed food acreage, as farmers switch from producing food. "The area used for biofuels is increasing each year," says Nik Bienkowski, head of research at ETF Securities, a commodities trading firm in London.
The food price rises are not bad news for everyone, says Bienkowski, who estimates that his company took in about $2 billion worth of investments last year. And millions of farmers whose income has languished through years of cheap food are now earning well.
"U.S. and British farmers are laughing all the way to the bank," says Simon Maxwell, director of the London-based Overseas Development Institute, an independent think tank. "And some poor people will get jobs on farms or in local communities." Yet those people will need to buy food, whose prices are rising far faster than wages. With relief agencies struggling to feed the hungry and the shelves in Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Senegal and many other countries in the developing world stocked with food many locals can no longer afford, the prospects for chaos are steadily growing.
**************************************************** Wheat prices jump after U.S. spring sets record ****************************************************
Reuters Monday February (Updates with European prices, trader quotes) By Valerie Parent and Chikafumi Hodo
PARIS/TOKYO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - European wheat prices jumped more than 2 percent in early trade on Monday after worries over supply propelled U.S. high-protein spring wheat to a fresh record and lifted all wheat contracts in their wake.
U.S. spring wheat on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange surged above $20 per bushel on Monday, extending recent gains and setting a record high for any U.S. wheat contract.
That buoyed both Chicago Board of Trade contracts and Euronext wheat prices, which returned to levels around 280 euros per tonne, still a way off contract highs of above 300 euros hit in September. But Euronext prices could revisit record peaks as long global weather risks -- and the spectre of ever tighter supplies -- remained, one French analyst said. "The market won't stop moving higher until weather fears have really been put aside," said the analyst.
Chicago soybean futures and all contract months for European rapeseed also hit record peaks, with Chinese demand prompting active follow-up buying in the case of soybeans.
Agricultural commodity markets were continuing to benefit from speculative buying by funds wary of some asset classes.
Jitters over world supplies held sway in Europe despite a lack of bullish, regional fundamentals given that crop developments were looking good and that exports from the 27-nation bloc were relatively inactive.
On the world stage, traders were watching Kazakhstan's plan to curb grain exports by imposing a customs tariff from March and reported drought in China's wheat belt.
U.S. SHORTAGES
MGE spring wheat for March delivery in electronic trading last traded at $19.95-3/4 per bushel as of 1043 GMT. The contract had briefly hit $20.23, up 5 percent from $19.25 on Friday.
"The Minneapolis price broke through that significant level and Chicago prices are chasing the move," said Kenji Kobayashi, grains analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management.
"Wheat is at an unprecedented level, but further gains are expected as long as fears over shortages in spring wheat are there. The strength in Minneapolis will keep others buoyant."
Front-month March Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures were up nearly 4 percent at $10.88 per bushel after rising as high as $10.91. It ended at $10.49-1/2 in Chicago on Friday.
U.S. wheat stocks are projected to fall to their lowest levels in 60 years by the end of the 2007/08 marketing year on May 31, after shortfalls in several world wheat regions in 2007 steered export demand to the United States. Shortages of high-protein spring wheat, the type traded in Minneapolis, are the most acute.
SOYBEANS
China's Xinhua news agency said some provinces in the north, the country's wheat basket, were suffering from drought.
But analysts say it seems unlikely China will be a net wheat importer in the near future given ample stocks.
Still, the areas hit by drought included China's top soy-producing province of Heilongjiang, fuelling concerns over increased soy demand from China. Front-month March CBOT soybean contracts were up 25 cents at $14.45-1/4 per bushel. The July contract hit a record high of $14.76 versus Friday's close at $14.52-3/4.
March CBOT soyoil was at 63.52 cents per lb, up from 62.30 cents on Friday. December contracts reached an all-time high of 65.73 cents per lb. "The next target for soybeans would be $15, but there is no clear technical point especially after breaking through $13," Kobayashi said.
China, the world's top soy buyer, has been buying U.S. and South American soybeans as well as vegetable oils to meet its food needs, traders said. China is experiencing its highest inflation in 11 years, largely driven by higher food costs.
Despite inflation, China needs to keep importing, even at record high prices, rather than risk shortages, analysts said.
March Chicago corn futures were trading at $5.27-3/4 per bushel, compared with $5.22-1/4 on Friday.
*********************************************** Wheat, corn, other grain commodities soar ***********************************************
Sydney Morning Herald February 25, 2008
Soybean and soybean oil futures in Chicago surged on speculation that global demand for food, animal feed and biofuels will exceed production this year. Corn also reached its highest ever, and wheat surged.
Soybeans for May delivery rose as much as 20.75 cents, or 1.4%, to $US14.59 a bushel in after-hours electronic trading on the Chicago exchange, and stood at $US14.5575 at 8:31 a.m. Singapore time.
Soybean oil for May delivery added as much as 1.05 cents, or 1.7%, to 64.07 cents a pound in Chicago, before trading at 63.91 US cents.
Corn futures for May delivery advanced 6.8 US cents, or 1.3%, to $US5.4175 a bushel, and traded at $US5.405 at 8:32 a.m. Singapore time.
Wheat for May delivery gained as much as 41 US cents, or 3.9%, to $US11.055 a bushel, breaching $US11 for the first time since Feb. 11 when the most-active contract reached a record $US11.53.
Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich - One with Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future
.. UN can no longer afford to feed those in need...
.. Wheat shortage and buying frenzy in US... are we ready to eat some bugs?
Hmmm-mmm ! What's for dinner when grain runs out! ******************************************************************************** UN conference promotes insect eating for everyone from famine victims to astronauts ********************************************************************************
CHIANG MAI, Thailand: Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, according to scientists.
"I definitely think they can assist," said German biologist V.B. Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a Harlequin longhorn beetle to a U.N.-sponsored conference this month on promoting bugs as a food source.
Three dozen scientists from 15 countries gathered in this northern Thailand city, home to several dozen restaurants serving insects and other bugs. Some of their proposals were more down to earth than others.
A Japanese scientist proposed bug farms on spacecraft to feed astronauts, noting that it would be more practical than raising cows or pigs. Australian, Dutch and American researchers said more restaurants are serving the critters in their countries.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates 1,400 species of insects and worms are eaten in almost 90 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Researchers at the conference detailed how crickets and silk worms are eaten in Thailand, grubs and grasshoppers in Africa and ants in South America.
"In certain places with certain cultures with a certain level of acceptance, then insects can very well be seen as part of the solution" to hunger, said Patrick Durst, a Bangkok-based senior forestry officer at the FAO.
The challenge, experts said, is organizing unregulated, small bug food operations in many countries so they can supplement the food that aid agencies provide. The infrastructure to raise, transport and market bugs is almost nonexistent in most countries.
Prof. Arnold van Huis, a tropical entomologist known as "Mr. Edible Insect" in his native Netherlands, blamed a Western bias against eating insects for the failure of aid agencies to incorporate bugs into their mix.
"They are completely biased," van Huis said. "They really have to change. I would urge other donor organizations to take a different attitude toward this ... It's excellent food. It can be sustainable with precautions."
There are questions about the safety of eating bugs and potential dangers from over-harvesting them, said Durst, who became interested in the practice known scientifically as entomophagy during his years working in Bangkok, where crickets and bamboo worms are sold as food by street vendors.
Tina van den Briel, senior nutritionist at the World Food Program, the U.N. agency that provides food in emergencies, expressed doubt that insects can benefit large, vulnerable populations. Most bugs are seasonal and have a short shelf life, she said.
"They can be a very good complement to the diet," said van den Briel, not a conference participant. "But they do not lend themselves to programs like ours where you transport food over long distances and where you have to store food for a few months."
She suggested a more practical benefit might be adding insects to animal feed or crushing them into a meal powder that could be used to make cookies or cakes.
Meyer-Rochow said aid agencies might even find a way to harvest crop-destroying swarms of locusts and crickets.
"These mass outbreaks could be a valuable food source," he said. "If the technology is available, they could be ground up like a paste and added to the food humans eat."
******************************************************** Eat insects to beat world hunger, UN scientists say ********************************************************
Larvae, crickets and worms are rich in proteins and minerals that are essential to the human body; experts advise eating bugs during drought and other crises.
Chiang Mai (AsiaNews/Agencies) – “I definitely think they can assist,” said German biologist V.B. Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a harlequin longhorn beetle to an UN-sponsored workshop this month on promoting bugs as a food source. Almost 40 scientists from 15 countries gathered in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, home to several dozen restaurants serving insects and other bugs.
Some of their proposals are really odd, literally out of this world. A Japanese scientist in fact proposed setting up bug farms on spacecrafts to feed astronauts, noting that it would be more practical than raising cows or pigs. Irreproachable as far as scientific solutions go.
According to estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, some 1,400 species of insects and worms are eaten in almost 90 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
“In certain places with certain cultures with a certain level of acceptance, insects can very well be seen as part of the solution” to hunger, said Patrick Durst, a senior forestry officer at the FAO in Bangkok.
Insects in many countries could serve as supplement to the food that aid agencies already provide. Transportation infrastructures could be improved elsewhere. But the main problem against acceptance is cultural since in many places the small invertebrates are not very appetising.
Despite the great enthusiasm surrounding the rediscovery of bugs as a food supplement, Tina van den Briel, senior nutritionist at the World Food Programme, the UN agency that provides food in emergencies, expressed doubt that they could benefit large, vulnerable populations. Most bugs are seasonal and have a short shelf life, she said.
Scepticism and doubts aside, quite a few scientists believe that larvae, crickets and worms have great potential and that they are “really good”. Remember: If you trust before you try, you may repent before you die.
************************************* UN warns over food aid rationing *************************************
The director of the UN's World Food Programme has said it is considering plans to ration food aid because of rising prices and a shortage of funds. Josette Sheeran told the BBC that the WFP needed increased contributions from donors to make sure it could meet the needs of those who already rely on it.
She said it also faced growing demands from countries like Afghanistan, where people were now unable to afford food.
Food prices rose 40% last year because of rising demand and other factors.
Earlier this month, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said the rising price of cereals such as wheat and maize had become a "major global concern".
The FAO estimated poor countries would see their cereal import bill rise by more than a third this year. Africa as a whole is expected to see a 49% increase.
The organisation has called for urgent action to provide farmers in poor countries with improved access to seeds and fertiliser to increase crop production.
'Growing needs'
In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Ms Sheeran said the WFP was holding talks with experts to decide whether food aid would need to be stopped or rationed if new donations did not arrive at the agency in the short term.
The former US undersecretary of state said she hoped the cuts could be avoided, but warned that the agency's budget requirements were rising by several millions of dollars a week because of the higher food prices.
"If food is twice as expensive, we can bring half as much in for the same price and the same contribution," she said.
"It will take increased contributions to make sure we can meet those already assessed needs."
Ms Sheeran said there was an urgent need for the funding shortage to be addressed because "in many places, we are the only source of food for some people".
"We're also seeing some new growing needs in some places like Afghanistan, where people are being thrown into food insecurity just simply due to the higher food prices."
She said those who had been hardest hit so far were people in developing countries who were living on 50 US cents (£0.25) a day, 80-90% of which was already being spent on food.
"In some of these developing countries, prices have gone up 80% for staple food," she added. "When you see those kinds of increases, they are simply priced out of the food markets."
Even middle-class, urban people in countries such as Indonesia, Yemen and Mexico were increasingly being priced out of the food market or forced to sacrifice education and healthcare, she warned.
Ms Sheeran said Egypt had just widened its food rationing system after two decades and Pakistan had reintroduced ration cards after many years.
China and Russia were meanwhile imposing price controls, while Argentina and Vietnam were enforcing foreign sales taxes or export bans, she said.
The WFP's ability to mitigate the impact of rising food prices has also been hampered by a significant decrease in the past five years of supplies of "in-kind food aid" - food produced abroad and delivered to vulnerable people in emergencies.
In-kind food aid peaked in 2000, when there were large surpluses and low prices for cereals.
The US, the world's largest donor of food aid, has since reduced its surplus and instead chosen to provide funding to international agencies.
******************************************************** Groceries Grow Elusive For Many in New York City ********************************************************
With Rents Soaring, Stores Are Being Demolished for Condos
By Robin Shulman Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 19, 2008; Page A03
NEW YORK -- Alicia Rivera has no good supermarket within walking distance of her Brooklyn home. A leg injury keeps her from taking the bus, so every three weeks a friend picks her up and drives her to a different neighborhood to stock up on green peppers, milk, chicken wings, ground beef -- as much as she can fit in her kitchen to last until the next shopping trip.
"It's hard," Rivera said as she unloaded her haul from the car into a cart. She buys mainly what she can freeze, and that means few fruits and vegetables. "I wish there was a good store close by," she added.
Many cities, including Washington, have long struggled with the lack of inner-city supermarkets, but Rivera's plight is different: There had been an Associated Supermarket across Myrtle Avenue from her housing project, but it was recently demolished to make way for a condominium development.
That fate is becoming more common in rapidly changing neighborhoods such as Rivera's section of Fort Greene. Soaring real estate values are prompting property owners throughout the city to shutter grocery stores and sell to developers, according to city officials, supermarket owners and industry analysts. In the process, another of the essential services that make New York livable is pushed further away, replaced by glittering condos and more banks.
Today there are one-third fewer supermarkets in New York's five boroughs than there were six years ago, said Lawrence Sarf, the president of F&D Reports, a retail consulting company.
The impact of losing a neighborhood grocery is powerful, not only eliminating a spot where residents come together but also affecting a community's health. Some poor neighborhoods in central Brooklyn or the Bronx that have lacked a good supermarket for decades have the lowest rates in the city of consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and the highest rates of diabetes and obesity -- a trend that has been found in inner cities across the country.
Bodegas have long flourished in the poorest city neighborhoods, but they often offer little in terms of nutritious food, with shelves carrying little more than hamburger mix, white bread, canned pasta and peanut butter, generally at higher prices than a supermarket charges.
The administration of New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is treating the loss of supermarkets and its effects as a looming health crisis and an impediment to economic development.
"Part of what we are trying to do is build a broad momentum," said Ben Thomases, whom Bloomberg appointed food policy coordinator in 2003.
One project is the return of the greengrocer pushcart, an effective and low-cost way to get fresh produce in certain neighborhoods, Bloomberg said. The city plans to license 1,500 street vendors to sell fruits and vegetables in the city's poorest neighborhoods.
Another program encourages bodegas to carry low-fat milk and to sell fruits and vegetables in single-serving bags.
Officials are also planning to launch a statewide supermarket commission that will seek new ways to interest grocery stores in neighborhoods that need them.
Duane Perry, the founder of the nonprofit Food Trust, which has created a $120 million fund to bring 32 new supermarkets to Philadelphia, has taken part in early discussions surrounding the commission.
"We're finding that there are gaps, places where the industry has not been able to provide safe, affordable and nutritious food," Perry said.
Others said the commission should devise creative ways to deliver groceries to a changing city.
"As we do new housing developments, we should think about how to structure space on the ground floor" and "make plans to incorporate street-level retail," said Linda Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services.
Alicia Glen, the managing director of the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, brings investment capital to underserved neighborhoods to stimulate economic development, including grocery stores. She said it is difficult to convince national supermarket chains "that even though people's incomes may be low, they still shop."
"I think you could characterize it as redlining," she said. "There's a real sense that there's certain places they won't go."
She said investors have been slow to realize that grocery stores can anchor neighborhood development. "How are you going to have million-dollar condos if there's no place to buy bok choy?" she asked.
A study by the Reinvestment Fund, a development finance corporation in Pennsylvania, found that every $1 spent on supermarket construction and operation generates $1.50 in additional economic activity.
The rationale for the vanishing grocery stores is clear: Grocers traditionally make profit margins of only 1 to 2 percent, while skyrocketing rent prices in recent years have outstripped the stores' income, industry experts said.
It did not help that a recent spate of bank expansions hiked up commercial rents for everyone, said C. Bradley Mendelsohn, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield.
High-end grocers are doing well, such as Whole Foods Market. It recently opened the largest grocery store in the city, at 71,000 square feet, including a sushi bar, an ice cream bar and a fromagerie. FreshDirect, an online grocer that delivers to certain neighborhoods, has so transformed food shopping that many new residential buildings include a refrigerated room off the lobby for food deliveries.
Meanwhile, D'Agostino, Gristedes and Key Food have each closed about a dozen stores since 2000, industry experts said.
"Unless you come up with some solution for essential services, you're going to have neighborhoods change dramatically," said John Catsimatidis, chief executive of the Gristedes chain, which has recently closed outlets because of rent hikes.
"Traditionally people went to their neighborhood stores to buy their needs," he said. "They won't be able to do that. It's not just grocery stores."
lysistrata food consumption of different countries
Take a Good Look at the Diet of Each Country
Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina (I really hope most American families eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less junk food than this family.)
Food expenditure for one week $341.98
Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
"Society comprises two classes: those who have more food than appetite, and those who have more appetite than food." ~ Sébastien-Roch Nicholas de Chamfort
lysistrata food consumption of different countries
Take a Good Look at the Diet of Each Country
Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina (I really hope most American families eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less junk food than this family.)
Food expenditure for one week $341.98
Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
"Society comprises two classes: those who have more food than appetite, and those who have more appetite than food." ~ Sébastien-Roch Nicholas de Chamfort
